Rotary Scholarships

Rotary Club of Morris Awards Scholarships By Jim Wright; edited by John Zappia

The Rotary Club of Morris awarded scholarships to students at the Morris Community High School (MCHS) Awards Day recently.  The MCHS recipients were Angela Moore, Amer McNelis, Dan Pershey and Melanie Sallee.  Each will receive $1,000.00 scholarship, payable to their respective school.  Jim Wright, Morris Rotarian and chairman of the Scholarship committee presented the scholarships and certificates to each student.  Each of these award certificates noted they were in honor of Dr. Hugo C. Avalos.  Karen Avalos, Hugo’s daughter was at the awards ceremony and helped with the presentations.  Hugo enjoyed presenting the scholarships at the high school for many years.

The GAVC recipient was Michael Monferdini II from Gardner High School.  He will also receive $1,000.00.  His award was in honor of Dave Potts, GAVC Director who passed away earlier this year.

The "Service Above Self" award, which is chosen by the MCHS faculty, was presented to Shelly Hanson (shown in picture at left).  She received a $500.00 check.  This award is presented to the one student who participates in many community service projects and exhibits the Service Above Self philosophy.  Shelly is also a member of the MCHS Interact

Club.Morris Rotary Club members conducted scholarship interviews at GAVC and MCHS on two separate Wednesday nights.  Nine (9) GAVC students and twenty-two (22) Morris Community High School Students were scheduled for the interviews.  The Morris Rotary members that interviewed the prospective college attendees included Jim Wright, Chairman, Mark Blackwell, Alan Ferrari, Art Hornsby, Charlie Gibbs, Art Gore, Lon Lovellette, Donna Matteson, Rich Mitchell, Al Pilch, Jim Ringer, and John Zappia.  A special thanks goes to Tom Talarico for doing all the computer work, preparing the certificates and letters.

Reference:  The Rotamorr, May 22, 2007.